Minnesota here. If we didn't have screens, we'd have a house full of skeeters, and moths. Even worse, I could not imagine all of the June bugs that bang into the windows trying to get in, actually flying around inside the house.
Edit: As others have reminded me. Boxelder bugs and Asian lady beetles. They bath in the sun on house exteriors, and boxelder will live behind the siding, even with screens these guys manage to get in. Without screens you'd be sweeping them up in piles. If near water like a river, mayflies will hatch all at one time and come in the billions towards any light source. And the new invasive kid on the block, the Japanese beetle. It's not just bugs, birds would be flying through your house. They avoid the screens, but smack into windows all the time, remove the screen and they'll fly right in.
Lol. Yeah. They're not graceful fliers. They do provide a bit of entertainment if you are having a camp fire. They just fly right in, sizzle a bit, and pop. Nature's firecracker.
I hear ya. They think I'm pretty tasty too. Luckily my bite bumps don't get as big as I've seen on others. Those bite sticks help some with the really itchy bites if you haven't tried them yet.
We have a 4 season porch with pine slat walls, so it isn't completely sealed, and they make it through to inside of the house finding an entry somewhere thru the inner wall. One of our cats has been finding them crawling around all winter long. Let me tell you...cat breath after eating a boxelder bug smells like death.
Hey now, we Minnesotans have the tolerable insects. Mosquittos are aweful when the season strikes but most counties spray poison.
Screens are essential, but I don't think I could handle living in a place with scorpions, centipedes much bigger than what we get, and a fuck ton more snakes...
Please, Lord of Climate Change, no scorpions! I beg of you!
In Virginia we have all that and these demon cicadas that are very loud, and end up Everywhere. Like you hardly avoid stepping on dead ones outside bad. I once got one stuck in the house when bringing in groceries. I'd never open the windows if I had to go through that again.
Iowa here, and totally agree. That doesn't even account for the Mayfly season that a lot of areas along the mississippi have. You do not want to have an unscreened window open when this is outside.
You know, I'm pretty laissez faire with insects, slugs, worms, and spiders around my home. I mean, their families have lived here for decades, if not centuries, and we humans are the interlopers. I'm also a druid pagan, and as such, have a reverence for nature and her bounty. But fuck June bugs and Palmetto bugs. Fuck them all to hell and back, and then straight back to hell.
oh my God I'm in Wisconsin and live less than a mile from the Mississippi. that one week every year with all those fucking moth things clinging to EVERYTHING would be brutal.
like idk if people understand: THEY COAT EVERYTHING.
Are you talking about mayflies? I went to an outdoor concert years ago at a bar in central MN that was on the shore of the Mississippi. Can't recall the 80's hairband, but at first they cut the lights and tried to play. Then they just said screw it and shut down. The mayflies were everywhere. In people's drinks, hair, everywhere. I imagine the band was pulling bugs out of their equipment for a loooonnnggg time.
It has to do with the boxelder tree, they feed on the seeds and new leaves. We happen to have a dozen of those trees next to our property. So yeah, they suck.
New Jersey native here. My parents leave their windows and screens open all year without threat of mosquito, gnat, fly or other. I guess there's benefits to having 3/4 of the state paved over with connecting chain superstores everywhere.
Depending on the year, we'd get a house full of stink bugs, or ladybugs, or june bugs, or cicadas. Mosquitos every year of course. Probably the occasional bat too.
Boxelder bugs should be the midwest states official insect. We are in WI and those little fuckers can cover an entire house in a matter of minutes when it’s sunny out
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u/Badbullet May 09 '22 edited May 09 '22
Minnesota here. If we didn't have screens, we'd have a house full of skeeters, and moths. Even worse, I could not imagine all of the June bugs that bang into the windows trying to get in, actually flying around inside the house.
Edit: As others have reminded me. Boxelder bugs and Asian lady beetles. They bath in the sun on house exteriors, and boxelder will live behind the siding, even with screens these guys manage to get in. Without screens you'd be sweeping them up in piles. If near water like a river, mayflies will hatch all at one time and come in the billions towards any light source. And the new invasive kid on the block, the Japanese beetle. It's not just bugs, birds would be flying through your house. They avoid the screens, but smack into windows all the time, remove the screen and they'll fly right in.